Percy Jewett Burrell - Later Years

Later Years

To help commemorate Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia's 50th anniversary in 1948, Burrell authored Sinfonia Birthday, which was described as "An Historical Play based upon facts of the founding of Phi Mu Alpha Fraternity". Although the work had a somewhat humorous tone, and although it is possible that the author took dramatic licence with this work, the play has been used to help form an understanding of the fraternity's earliest years by fraternity historians, and was a source for the fraternity's Centennial History, authored by Dr. T. Jervis Underwood.

A photograph in a Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia magazine showed Burrell at the 1948 national fraternity convention assisting in the presentation of a commemorative gavel made of wood taken from the USS Constitution. The gavel continues to be used today during the Fraternity's triennial national conventions and is stored at the fraternity's national headquarters, Lyrecrest, in Evansville, Indiana, when not in use. He also spoke at the 1952 national convention in Cincinnati, Ohio, which is believed to be his last visit to a national fraternity event. A photograph in the fraternity's archives taken at the convention - possibly the last known picture of Burrell at a national fraternity event - shows him presenting a photograph of the first National Convention held in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1901. While the archives contain no official explanation of his intentions in presenting the picture, some believe that he did so as a reminder of the fraternity's early days, of which he was an integral part. The photograph is on display at Lyrecrest.

As of 1951, Burrell was serving as an associate editor of Alumni Opus, a publication of the New England Conservatory Alumni Association.